Walking with God in the Hard Moments of Life
I am a bona fide church nerd. I’ve always enjoyed going to church, even when I was a kid, but that sentiment has only grown over the years. While others leisurely lie in bed on Sunday, letting the comfort of the sheets and Spider Man pajamas invite them to stay home, I’m up and ready. Others consider the pull of the park or lake, but I feel the pull of getting with the church family—for worship.
I may be a vintage adult, but I like the newer songs we sing at my church. Sure, the old classics (i.e., hymns) are great, but so is the new stuff. Why? They draw me to worship and glorify God. I feel God’s pleasure when I engage in worship and seek His glory. As David wrote, God dwells in the praise of His people (my paraphrase of Ps. 22:3).
Admittedly, it’s easy to offer praise to God on Sunday mornings. I’m surrounded by other believers, we’re engaging in His Word, and we are lifting up His name together. It’s easy to swim downstream when the current around you is flowing that direction. But when life gets hard, it’s easier to focus on ourselves and the situation we find ourselves in. Yet, I’m beginning to wonder if it’s in those hard moments when we most glorify God.
After His resurrection, Jesus had a heart-to-heart conversation with Peter about his love and commitment. Jesus’s call to “feed my sheep” concluded with this statement.
“Feed my sheep,” Jesus said. “Truly I tell you, when you were younger, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don’t want to go” (John 21:17-18).
Peter would follow Jesus. Peter would feed His sheep. And as Jesus foretold, Peter would be bound against his will. A life of living for God’s glory would end in an inglorious death.
Wait. Stop. That is an inaccurate description of Peter’s death. Let’s read the next verse:
“He said this to indicate by what kind of death Peter would glorify God” (v. 19).
His death would glorify God. We don’t often appreciate how life’s challenges can bring glory to God, and I’ve no doubt that, at this point in his life, Peter may have wondered that too. But both his life and death did bring glory to God. Even as he encountered persecution and the threat of death, Peter never wavered. His unwavering commitment to the power, grace, and love of God was a testimony to the One he followed. Peter did not fear death because he looked to the One who had conquered death. Peter knew a resurrected life awaited him.
Peter was a living testimony to the words he wrote in 2 Peter 5:10-11:
“The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little while. To him be dominion forever. Amen.”
Let’s make every aspect of our lives a testimony to God’s power and glory. Good days, bad days. On days when the praise comes easy and on days when it seems everyone is against us. Because no matter who or what is against us, God is with us—and for us.
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:37-39).
I hope and pray that every aspect of my life—and my death—will point to Him and bring Him glory.
“My eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything, but that now as always, with all courage, Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether by life or by death” (Phil. 1:20).
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